For any product that can be described and priced per item, per weight or by how it is packaged, procurement has often been inefficient and time consuming for purchasers and sellers alike. This applies to retail grocery and healthcare businesses and any that regularly purchase a variety of items from various sources. Additionally, past procurement methods have not been certain to bring purchasers the best purchase terms available, or to assure sellers a reasonable opportunity to fairly compete.
Typically, in a retail business, sellers would need to schedule a meeting with a purchasing agent of a large retailer, travel to the scheduled meeting, and make offers on products with little or no knowledge of what competitive offer had been or would be made by other sellers. This practice has been inefficient, time consuming and not competitive. Sellers have been unable to react to competitive offers and purchasers have been denied the benefit of such reactive pricing.
A number of websites on the worldwide web offer auctions and reverse auctions. These permit buyers or sellers to make offers or “quote” on various posted items. The quoting often is set to close at a particular time, and a feature has been offered whereby quoting may be extended if a quote is received within an extension threshold time approaching the scheduled close.
These sites are not tailored to a particular business's procurement practices, however. They do not afford the opportunity for a business purchaser to schedule an event among recognized, qualified business suppliers, during which many items required by the business purchaser are posted by that purchaser, and suppliers are unable to quote against one another, not just on price, but on other terms important to both the selling and purchasing parties. Neither do prior sites allow for confirming a purchasing or selling activity to the business practices of the relevant business. In addition prior sites have not allowed for actual negotiation of contract terms of a negotiated contract.